[Ads-l] "queer phiz," collocation before quiz

[Ben Zimmer]

You can find some earlier blends/portmanteaus in this post:

https://wordinquiry.wordpress.com/2015/12/09/my-portmanteau-is-packed-im-ready-to-go/

Examples include:
"niddicock" 'fool' (1587), possibly "nidiot" + "nodcock"
"ninneversity" 'derogatory name for a university' (1592), "ninny" +
"university"

Both of those show up in an advanced OED search for "blend" in the
etymology, sorted by oldest date first.

https://www.oed.com/search/advanced/Entries?textTermText0=blend&textTermOpt0=Etymology&dateOfUseFirstUse=false&page=2&sortOption=DateOldFirst

On Thu, May 9, 2024 at 9:17 PM Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu> wrote:

> Would this be the first portmanteau word in the English language ?
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of
> Stephen Goranson <goranson at DUKE.EDU>
> Sent: Thursday, May 9, 2024 6:17 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Subject: "queer phiz," collocation before quiz
>
> 1748, Tobias Smollett, The Adventures of Roderick Random, second ed.,
> chapter xiii, page 97:
>
> "....what is called a queer phiz, occasioned by a long chin, an hook nose,
> and high cheek bones, rendered him on the whole a very fit subject for
> mirth and pleasantry."
>
> This, I suggest, is a forerunner of the contraction quiz.
>
> https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433107874129&seq=125
>
>

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